Canada’s Women’s Foil Team Finishes 6th at the 2017 Fencing World Championships

Canada’s Women’s Foil and Men’s Sabre Teams were in action today at the Fencing Senior World Championships in Leipzig, Germany.

Canada’s Women’s Foil Team of Alanna Goldie (Calgary, AB), Eleanor Harvey (Hamilton, ON), Kelleigh Ryan (Ottawa, ON) and Ariane Bilodeau (Outremont, QC) finished 6th overall. Canada defeated Poland in the 16’s to advance to the quarter-finals where they faced Russia and lost 42-36. This put Canada into the 5-8 ranking bouts. Canada defeated China 45-39 to advance to the 5-6 ranking bout, where they lost to France 45-34 to finish in 6th place overall. Italy defeated USA in the final and Russia won the bronze medal. Canada’s women’s foil team is continuing to move up in the world rankings.

Canada’s Men’s Sabre team finished in 14th place overall. Canada’s team of Joseph Polossifakis (Laval, QC), Shaul Gordon (Richmond, BC), Fares Arfa (Laval, QC) and Cedric Boutet (Rosemere, QC) defeated Hong Kong 45-41 in the round of 32 to advance to top 16’s where they lost to Italy 45-35. Canada then faced Germany in the 9-16 tableau losing 45-32, but then defeated Great Britain by the same score of 45-32 to move on to the 13-14 ranking bout. They lost to Georgia 45-38 in their last bout which gave them 14th place overall in the event.

Canada’s top performer in the Individual competition was foil fencer Kelleigh Ryan who finished 25th overall after losing to top world ranked USA athlete Lee Kiefer 15-9 in the round of 32. Ryan had defeated Romania’s Malina Calugareanu 14-9 in the top 64’s. Her teammates Eleanor Harvey and Alanna Goldie were also in the main draw but lost their 64 bouts to finish 34th and 37th overall. Canada’s Malinka Hoppe Montanaro finished 37th in Women’s epee, while teammate Leonora MacKinnon was 45th. Junior Madison Thurgood (Edmonton, AB) was the only sabre athlete to advance and she faced a top seeded Russian in her bout and lost to finish 63rd overall. The only male to advance was Marc-Antoine Brodeur (Boucherville, QC) in Men’s Foil, who finished 62nd after dropping his 64 bout.